Sunday, 4 September 2011

Golden rum cake

Today I celebrate The Caked Crusader’s 4th birthday.It doesn’t feel that long ago that I received an ‘all you need to know about blogging’ masterclass from my friend Soo but I guess time flies when you’re having fun.

Now I’ll admit that I have one or two cookery books in my possession but that doesn’t mean I’ll turn away new ones! When Quirk books kindly offered a free copy of Krystina Castella’s “Booze Cakes” I was delighted; it was a book that had been on my radar for some time. Further, as luck would have it, I’d just purchased a new bundt tin (a Wilton Dimensions Cascade tin) and was desperate to try it out!

The golden rum cake recipe stood out to me as I have a passion for rum cake, borne of many lovely work trips to the Bahamas and memories of the wonderfully aromatic Tortuga Rum Cakes shop. With some shame, I can confess that, on one trip, I had to buy an extra suitcase while I was out there, in order to bring all my purchases back – a case full of rum cakes (nb.I am not exaggerating for comedic effect; I speak the cold hard truth). This recipe gets pretty close to those heavenly creations.

I have made a rum cake before (recipe can be found here) but it was more of a nutty rum cake. This one replicates the more yellow, pudding-y rum cakes and has rather more booze in it!You can see the rum saturation in this slice:

From memory, this is the first cake I’ve ever made where I think it needs to come with a “drink and drive” warning.Because the rum glaze contains rum where the alcohol isn’t cooked out, it does pack a punch.Bear it in mind if you’re partaking in this cake and have already had a beverage or two.Be safe out there, people!

I think you could cut back on the quantities in the glaze if you weren’t that into rum.Some of my eaters found it too strong...while others loved it.The cake definitely mellows with age and the punchy strength of the rum softens; the cake is huuuuuge but this doesn’t matter because a) it’s heavenly, and b) it keeps a week in an airtight container.

As the recipes in the book are American, they are only given in cups. I have converted them to metric but include the cups for anyone who prefers them.

I finish on a more serious note.My friend, Soo, the one I have to thank for getting me into blogging and introducing me to a whole new world is supporting a really important charity – the Canadian Parkinson’s Society.The charity funds research into Parkinson’s and I’m sure you’ll all agree that any findings will benefit sufferers the world over.You can read more about it and make donations via Soo’s site.

Just one last sweetener to add; Soo being Soo, she’s offering great gifts (awesome earrings that she’s made) for anyone donating over $10 (that’s about £6) and also entry into a prize draw for anyone who donates.

Grease a 9-10” bundt tin (that’s approx 23-25cm). As bundt tins have fine details and I wanted the cake to retain those, I used a cake release spray – it gets into the nooks and crannies of complicated moulds better.

Cream together the butter and sugar – dedicate a lot of time to this, until the batter turns pale and light textured – almost like whipped cream. I can sometimes spend 10 minutes or more on this stage.

Beat in the eggs one at a time; if it looks like the mix might curdle add some of the flour.

Combine the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.

In a jug, combine the milk, vanilla and rum.

Beat about a third of the flour mix into the batter, followed by a third of the milk mix.

Repeat twice more until all the ingredients are combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.Check the cake after 50 minutes as mine only needed 55 minutes cooking time.

Leave to cool, still in the tin, on a wire rack.

Now make the glaze: melt the butter over a low heat.

Stir in the sugar and water and slowly bring to the boil.

Cook for 5 minutes, stirring all the time.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rum.

Pour the glaze over the cake while it’s still in the tin – this forces the cake to absorb all the liquid. Pour gently and slowly as it’s possible that the cake might not absorb it all in one go and you might have to stop and give it time to recover!

Leave to cool completely (still in the tin) before de-tinning onto a plate and storing in an airtight tin.

Serve in generous slices – I don’t think it needs any accompaniment but whipped cream is an option!

Happy Fourth Birthday! I recently read about your blog in "Accountancy Magazine" (undoubtedly one of the most interesting articles I've ever seen therein!) Am so happy I've found your luscious blog, I adore cake and reading about cake!

oh wow this looks lovely! I too have to take extra bags for those kinds of purchases, whenever I go to Norway I have to stock up on all of the ingredients/decorations I can't get here...I even take less clothes so I can get more in! This cake looks boozily stunning!!

Happy bloganniversay! The rum cake looks gorgeous and I love your new bundt tin. I love the flavour of rum, but my family don't, so I guess I'll ahve to eat this one all by myself :)Looks such a lovely fine soft textured sponge

I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and congratulate you on doing an awesome job with the blog, too. As for the cake... Wow, this was probably the highest-voltage cake I'd ever see, so I immediately decided to make one for a family visit this weekend. My cake tin is a bit smaller (not to mention less awesome-looking) so I put the surplus batter into two muffin cups. I'm saving the cake for tomorrow, but the muffins have already been eaten and they were great: spongy, somewhat sticky and moist, with a definite rummy bite. I can't wait to see how the proper cake turned out!

happy Blogiversary! I am also filled with envy - I have a couple("cough") of those Wilton Bundt tins and the outside of my cakes always turn out dark. How do you get it golden AND cooked through please? Having seen yours I know now it can be done and it is not just deceptive marketing photos!

I have never tried (or even heard of) rum cake and as a rum fiend I now feel like a bit of a fraud! This looks stunning and I must get my hands on some rummy cake asap. I also made the Toblerone cupcakes that you blogged about awhile ago this week - they went down a storm, esp the ganache! So thank you :)

Hi Caked crusader - it may be just you are a baking genius? :-) (Or at least this is what I am telling myself) I have used cake release spray, melted butter, melted butter and flour and still it is dark. I fear I may have to play with the settings on my oven, and not use the fan setting if I can muster the courage......

Belated Happy Blogbirthday. Your blog became an important resource, when I relocated back to the UK and had to leave all my cookbooks behind. Like putting butter on a cat's paws, your recipes soothed me while I settled into a new way of life. After all, so many cakes, so little time!

Have just made this cake and can't wait to try it! I have a question, though - was I supposed to wait until the cake was cool before applying the glaze? Mine seems to have shrunk somewhat, although I guess it will still taste good.

I found the cake to be a curious mixture of tasty and kinda bland - I think the glaze was the tasty bit. Having mulled this over, I remember that I've disliked milk-heavy cake in the past. Am now wondering how swapping out some of the milk for pureed banana would work...

I have some Mount Gay Rum left from when I went to the Caribbean, I have always wanted to try a Caribbean cake, I made this one and added Sultanas, the cake is gorgeous, I am so pleased I found this recipe, thank you for posting it. Thank you for UK measurements.

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The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

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About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.